FROM COMEDY sketches about Dublin huns and Irish mammies to famous Hollywood films reinterpreted with a Dublin twist and everything in between, it is likely you will have come across the work of Enya Martin if you are a regular user of Facebook.
The Clondalkin native has been producing video content for social media for close on four years now and her slapstick take on life has seen her Facebook page Giz a laugh amass more than 258,000 followers. With videos views totalling in the tens of millions and playing many gigs around the country including Vicar Street, it may come as somewhat as a surprise that a career in comedy was not always something to which Martin aspired.
"I always loved drama. I guess it is in the DNA with my father's side into performing drama. I was doing a marketing degree and in the last year of college when I started making videos for Facebook. I think like most people who get into comedy, I liked having a laugh and making people laugh but I never thought of getting into [the line of work]. I saw just saw it as a hobby. I thought I was going to be doing the regular nine to five job."
From Dearbhla, the entitled influencer/blogger, to Chanto, a Dublin session moth who causes carnage wherever she goes, the characters and stereotypes that Martin plays in her videos are instantly recognisable. The 25-year-old says the characters are based on the personalities she would see around her area and in Dublin.
"The characters are based on the stereotypical people I would have seen around my area and around Dublin. Chanto would be cliches of girls who get involved in scraps at the weekend or are involved in a dysfunctional relationship with their boyfriend, constantly breaking up and getting back together, and just general messing about.
'We all have probably experienced the situation of asking our mums for money and for them to go off on one'
One character with which Martin has had huge success is Sharon, the classic Irish mammy who gives her two cents on the major daily events as well as giving out how she holds the house together while everyone is out enjoying themselves.
"Sharon is a character that would be based on my own mother and how she would react to certain situations. I think why she is so popular is because she is so relatable. We all have probably experienced the situation of asking our mums for money and for them to go off on one.
"What I did find funny when I started publishing the videos of Sharon was I thought it was just my own mother who acted this way, but people would comment on Facebook and tell me that this is the way their mothers would go on so it was great that people found the videos relatable and that I did not have the only mother who went on like that."
'I love doing stand-up. If I am honest, I prefer stand-up [to making videos] because you are getting immediate feedback'
With success comes fame, and all other aspects of being a public figure, good and bad, but the comedian says she is taking it all in her stride. "Yeah I get recognised a lot by people in the street. I will have lots of girls and fellas come up to me on a night out saying 'you're the one from the Facebook page' which I quite like because that means I know people are watching and enjoying the videos but it [some situations] can be quite odd sometimes. If I am out doing the shopping and someone is looking at me and I do wonder are they staring at me because they recognised me or they just staring because they are strange? Then I question myself am I over thinking it, so it is what it is."
Martin will be performing her popular stand up act at the Town Hall Theatre on Sunday October 28, an area of her comedic act which she says she is relishing and one she hopes to pursue in real earnest over the coming year.
"I love doing stand-up. If I am honest, I prefer stand-up [to making videos] because you are getting immediate feedback. When you put up a video and people comment 'haha' it is nice, but I do question how funny did they really find that, whereas when you are at a live gig and you tell a joke and you get loud laughs, then you know for sure the audience did find it funny. To experience that is a great feeling as well.
"I am very busy at the moment with live shows so I only post a video to my social media pages every two weeks because of time constraints. But I will continue to do them but stand-up is the way I want to go. I have been lucky enough to perform at Vicar Street and the intention will to be hopefully performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival next year and in the future, the dream would be a 10 minute slot at Live at the Apollo."
Enya Martin presents Giz A Laugh Live at the Town Hall on Sunday October 28 at 7.45pm. She will also appear at mixed bill shows in the Spiegeltent, Eyre Square (Saturday 27, 6.30pm ) and the Best Of Irish Show at the Spiegeltent (Sunday 28, 2.30pm ). Tickets are available from www.vodafonecomedycarnival.com
